I have a big old bag of green lentils that I impulse-bought at Trader Joe's. The only issue is that I don't know the basics about cooking them and the bag only has an elaborate recipe on the back.

From what I understand, it seems like green lentils take a little longer to cook. I was thinking that I'd just use them in soups and stews and whathaveyou. Then, I thought, "I'll go to the forums! They'll have lots of green lentil ideas!"

So, what's your favorite way to use green lentils? Thank you for your time and help!

Tons of things the most underused probably being to sprout them. I love sprouted lentils.

+1 Sprouted lentils are Awesome in salads, as a snack, thrown into most hot meals right at the end of the cooking. Super easy too.

"Honey" Baked Lentils are really yummy and freeze well so you can make a giant pot and freeze into meal sized portions. You need to replace the honey with a good flavourful sweet source like Brown sugar or Agave but the rest is vegan. You can also make it in a slow cooker and it works just as well. Addition of any root vegetable works well (I really like cut up beets added in).

I like to make sandwich slices by combining cooked lentils, onions, garlic, cashews and/or hemp seeds, peas, spices and herbs, ground flax or Ener-g egg replacer, garbanzo flour, a little oil, vegan Worcestershire and/or liquid smoke into a food processor. Then I mix in gluten or another binder to get a thick dough. Then into a sided baking sheet, cook at 350 for 20-30 min until solid, cut to size and voila! It's a yummy, highly nutritious sandwich companion. (It sounds more complicated than it really is.) And the best part is the variation of flavors you can mix into it.

Mujadara or basic lentil soup or lentil barley soup is how I usually use lentils. They're good added to salads, too. They'll cook in 20-45 minutes depending on age and what else you have in the pot. For plain old boiled lentils, you need a 2 to 1 ratio of water to lentils, bring to a boil and them simmer partially covered until al dente. Add salt after fully cooked. Eat straight or add to whatever. It couldn't be easier.

I use them in the Lentil Salad and French Lentil Soup recipes from VCON. Both super easy and delicious.

These are two of my favorite v'con recipes! You should make them both. I also like to sometimes sub cooked lentils for the chick peas in v'con chick pea cutlets.

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A couple of people have already mentioned it, but the "Snobby Joes" recipe is really quite good. Mujadara too... there are tons of recipes online.

Otherwise, lentil soup is hearty and comforting... I don't have a specific recipe to share, but there are tons of them out there and otherwise you can just play with whatever veggies you have. I generally use stuff like carrots/celery/onion/tomatoes in the base and then add some greens (like kale, perhaps?) at the end.

Again, I don't have a specific recipe to share because it's the kind of thing I just throw together, but cooked green lentils tossed with cucumber and cherry tomatoes and a tiny bit of red onion with dill vinaigrette is a nice summer salad.

Garam Masala will really change the whole flavor of that recipe, but Indian style snobby joes does sound kind of good. If you don't want to do that, chili powder is mostly a mix of things like cayenne, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. I've subbed in varying amounts of those individual spices with some success when I'm out of chili powder. This recipe has oregano also!

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Garam Masala will really change the whole flavor of that recipe, but Indian style snobby joes does sound kind of good. If you don't want to do that, chili powder is mostly a mix of things like cayenne, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. I've subbed in varying amounts of those individual spices with some success when I'm out of chili powder. This recipe has oregano also!

Thanks for the tip, you can always trust the Doctor! I've been itching to really raid my spice rack. I think I'll put the garam masala back on the bench then and make my own blend. Next time I'll bust out the curry and garam masala.